Birds, birds, and then some birds!

Black figs, poached Portuguese pears, oatmeal, and almond milk, a breakfast of champions!! A great way to start my day knowing a lengthy hike was in my future.

Joanne and I headed off for the Ria Formosa Natural Park near the airport and with the gorgeous sunshine, the endless blue sky, and fueled on our healthy breakfast, we ended up doing just over 14,00 steps, a total of 10, 40 km!

We also saw magpies, plovers, stilts, whimbrels, many flamingos (my photos weren’t usable), and at one point, very near the salt flats, we saw (literally) hundreds of very tiny undistinguishable birds feasting on the edge of where the water had dried up and the salt was forming. From a distance we thought the earth was covered in tiny hermit crabs but then realized it was in fact, itsy bitsy birds.

This “scene” amused me for some reason. Two Italian couples, very animated and loud. The two women looked like sisters but what amused me was the one fellow, bald as a billiard ball, and the other, long stringy hair down to his chest. I kept waiting for it to blow back to emphasize the difference but no such luck.

Look at the size of that lantana! Wow.

The path was pretty congested in places, mostly Brits from the various “allos” we received, but the occasional Portuguese out for a run, or biking. The golf course, which winds along part of this trail, was for the most part empty, perhaps because the wind was up a bit but we did see a couple of diehards on the return trip.

Joanne and I had packed a lunch and when we arrived at one of the boardwalks that would take us over to the Faro Beach, we headed across and found a lovely spot for eating. AS you can see, the beach was packed!!

Our big debate was, do we walk back the beach or return along the route we had taken with one tiny diversion added. We opted for the return along the route as we both knew that walking this distance in the sand would probably do us in.

Sadly, on the way back we were heading towards an old pine and eucalyptus forest that we’ve walked through many times only to find it completely leveled!!! All the trees had been cut using what a appeared to be chainsaw, the area fenced off, and a swath of about 500 meters’ deep and perhaps a km or two long running between the golf course and the salt flats. I suspect somebody considers this progress but frankly, it breaks my heart.

Would you believe me if I told you that Faro removed all it’s snow and piled it up along the salt flats??

This is called Naples Garlic, it grows wild and quite prolifically at this time of the year. I broke a single stem and WOW, instantly hungry for pasta!!!!

All in all, a wonderful hike/walk and two very tired people when we finally made it back to the car. Thank goodness we decided not to return the beach route.